'Southland'

Original network: NBC (2009)Moved to: TNT (2010-present)How it fared: Aired as a midseason replacement on NBC in its first season, the network originally renewed the gritty cop drama for a 13-episode second season, only to unceremoniously drop it from the schedule before it could even premiere. That led cable network TNT to snap up the rights to all seven episodes of the show's first season and the six unaired Season 2 episodes that had already produced, effectively giving the show a second life. While it has never enjoyed major ratings success, the cop drama's critical standing has only risen in subsequent seasons, and it's now considered by many to be one of the best shows on television - effectively jumpstarting TNT's foray into the increasingly-crowded original-programming game.